Timely
by tentativewriter
Summary: It should have been impossible, but her eyes were not deceiving her, she could not feel any genjutsu, there in front of her stood her supposed to be dead brother in law.
1. Prologue

Sasuke knew he fucked up the moment he did it. He hadn't meant to send his family through a portal, but he had panicked. There was no way in hell he would allow Sakura to fight with their two-week-old daughter in her arms. That however did not mean that his instinctive choice was the better one. Could he have summoned Susanoo to protect them? If in the moment he had one more second to think, he might have done just that, but seeing Sakura unable to defend herself and about to be attacked, his instinct was to use his rinnegan. He sent his wife and daughter through a portal, Sakura was going to kill him when he brought her back.

Having sent his daughter and wife through portal was advantageous (though he reminded himself to not defend his action in any other form than, "I did it without thinking," because even he had to admit it had been extreme), he no longer had to worry about hurting either of them in the middle of the fight, or of the rogue ninja hurting them. He easily defeated the rogue ninja once his wife and daughter were no longer directly in harm's way.

The battle's end allowed him to pay attention to something he had pushed to the back of his mind. When he sent his wife and daughter through the portal, a lot of chakra had been used, he tells himself is due to the distance that had existed at that moment, but as he opens the portal to Kaguya's sand dimension he finds that there is no sign of Sakura or their daughter. He knows Sakura well enough to know she would not hide, he decides he likely sent her to the snow dimension, but again as he opens the portal he discovers there is no one there.

He knows there is no way he would have accidentally sent her to any of the other dimensions, but still through pure will power he opens one last portal, this time to the dimension Kaguya was sealed in. Once more he discovers no signs of his family.

Still he decides to try and stay calm, after all, panicking is why he accidentally sent them away, first things first he decides, go through the events what he did. It was early, he was keeping watch, Sarada woke up, and was fine, she became hungry, started to cry, which not only awoke Sakura but alerted the rogue ninja who were now tied to a tree. When Sakura was surrounded he thought of his family, and how he would not lose his family again, he thought of Itachi, and then they were gone.

Sasuke knew he fucked up the moment he sent his family through the portal, but until this very moment he did not realize how bad the incident was.

* * *

Sakura, wanted to kill her husband, sure she loved him and if there was such a thing as soul mates she was positive he was hers, but right now she wanted to kill the bastard. He had been over protective throughout the pregnancy, and while true she was still recovering, sending her through a portal to protect her and Sarada was more than slightly overboard especially without warning. At least she was still in the forest, but no matter how much she tried she could not hear any fighting nearby, and once she searched for signs of his chakra, she detected none.

Stranger still, her surrounding looked similar to where she had been, the placement of trees was the same, the height however revealed them to be shorter. Which could only mean her husband slipped her into a different dimension, not just a different a location.

Now as she looked to her left, she discovered that her darling husband had not just sent her and Sarada to another dimension, but through time, how did she know this? Her dead brother in law was standing right there, not even concealing the fact that he was staring. She had no time to worry about Itachi however as Sarada began to stir making that face that she and Sasuke had come associate with crying soon, this was not surprising, they had been attacked as Sakura was getting ready to feed her. Deciding that Sarada's hunger is the more pressing issue Sakura decides to ignore Itachi, after all he is not a threat. "You are Haruno Sakura."

"I am not," it was not a lie, after all she was _Uchiha_ Sakura, and had been for some time now, "my daughter is hungry, could you give me some privacy?" Itachi left the immediate area but she was aware he was not far; he was giving her privacy while watching her closely. _No denying he is Sasuke's brother_ , she mused but again she settled for ignoring Itachi instead of scolding him for the lack of privacy. After all, the main reason she wanted privacy was for a chance to think. She had no doubt Sasuke would come for them, but the problem is he likely had no idea where they were, and the longer her and Sarada were present, the more dangerous it would be for everyone.

* * *

A/N: So I am still pretty new to fanfiction so excuse any thing that makes this look funky if it does. So this story is gonna be a little weird with how chapters go and I figured I should explain here. Full chapters will not be published at once, instead parts of the chapter will be updated, then once that chapter is fully written I will eventually combine it into one full chapter, this is the first of those combinations, this was initially chapters 1 and 2, now its a combined prologue. As of now chapter one is complete I just haven't combined it all yet. Hopefully this isn't confusing to anyone, this is just one way to update the story more regularly, as the reader you'll get bits and pieces of the chapter before seeing it all together, and since I know how lazy I can be, writing out two-three pages at a time for one update as opposed to ten is much more comforting and makes it feel less forced (in my opinion). Anyway please enjoy.


	2. Chapter 1

He was not a man to be taken off guard, but what he had just felt would have surprised anyone, he took some pride in the knowledge that his reaction was not one to draw attention, maybe his eyes widened some, but otherwise nothing else could be considered noteworthy. He turned to Kisame motioning for him to go on ahead, and Kisame for his part did not question Itachi. If he too could sense the chakra signatures he did not mention it, and left Itachi behind him.

He remained calm until Kisame was far away, then he ran towards the direction he sensed his brother's chakra. Itachi had no doubt it was Sasuke's chakra, while it had felt different, (it was much more potent, stronger, yet somehow calmer) he could recognize his brother's chakra better than his own. However, Sasuke's chakra vanished as quickly as it arrived, blinded by the shock of sensing his brother so near, it had taken him longer than it should have to detect the two new chakra signatures where seconds before none was, and those did not vanish, the strangest part of all, was that these chakra signatures, felt vaguely familiar.

He rushed through the forest careful not to make too much noise, after all any chakra that felt vaguely familiar could only belong to an enemy ninja, which in his case meant it could be anyone. Careful not to alert, he slowed his pace down, activating his sharingan he could barely make out what appeared to be a woman in a cloak. What stood out to him, was the pink hair. As careful as he was being, he still managed to make some noise, but the woman in front of him paid no attention to him, instead she seemed to be focused on something else, that's when he remembered that there was a second chakra signature, this time however, he realized what he had not noticed before, the chakra was small, so either the woman was carrying an infant, or she was with child.

Itachi could make out some stirring under the woman's cloak, which meant she had an infant with her. She was so focused on the baby in her arms that she didn't notice him until he was standing ten feet away from her. "You are Haruno Sakura." He was calm as he said it, but if she had looked up at him, she would have seen the confusion in his still red eyes.

"I am not," was her simple reply, but she added, "my daughter is hungry, could you give me some privacy?" He acquiesced to her request, and waited a few minutes for her to let him know it was safe to come down from a tree he was perched in, after all he could never leave a defenseless woman and her child alone, at least that is the excuse he gave himself, but he knew there was a different reason he stayed nearby. It was in the minutes that he gave the woman that Itachi came to one conclusion, ignore. He chooses to ignore some simple facts, the seal on her forehead that matched the one on the current Hokage's forehead, the fact that she lied to him and was in fact Haruno Sakura, older somehow, but she was Haruno Sakura, and that the small glimpses of the little girl in her arms reminded him of Sasuke.

Once she was done feeding the infant and began to burp the girl, and the okay was given by her he approached hesitantly, "it is not safe to be in the middle of the forest alone."

"My husband will come for me." Itachi could hear the agitation in her voice, but still pressed on.

"It looks like it might rain soon ma-"

"Itachi-san, I appreciate the effort, I really do, but it was my husband's over protective nature that sent Sarada and myself here, and I cannot handle another protective Uchiha right now. If I leave the area my husband will have an even more difficult time finding us." There was a warning in her tone that amused Itachi but still he could also feel her exhaustion.

This time Itachi struggled to remain calm as her words registered in his mind, he blamed his late realization on the strange events, "a- are you not expected to stay quiet on these matters? It is dangerous for me to know too much."

Sakura almost scoffed when she responded, "you figured it out the moment you saw her, she looks too much like him." Then almost shyly asked, "would you like to hold her?" Sakura saw his eyes light up at the prospect, but she also saw the sadness that quickly covered it, in the end Itachi turned away from her.

"The way you speak to me I can only assume you know the truth, I will not question how you know, but the truth does not mean he would allow me to hold her. If her father would like me not to hold her, I will not, nor will I act under the presumption that he will let me near his daughter." Sakura was not even slightly taken aback by how similar her husband and Itachi thought, she still thought they were idiots, but hearing the pain in Itachi's voice she decided to respect his wishes. After all, the Sasuke that was roaming in this time, was not one to forgive, he would never allow Itachi near Sarada, and unfortunately that was the Sasuke that Itachi is acquainted with. "You said your husband would come for you, but it will be raining soon, we need to find some shelter, there is a cave nearby, we should be fine there," noticing that Sakura was going to argue he added," it is close enough that he should be able to sense your chakra when he arrives. Besides you should not stay out in the rain."

Sensing no room for argument (stubbornness was a family trait apparently), she started following Itachi, she distracted herself by focusing on making Sarada burp, because if she focused on anything else her fear would come. Sakura was not afraid of Itachi, she was terrified of being where she did not belong, of being in a time where Akatsuki was still around, she was afraid of changing the past, of making it so that Sarada no longer existed.

* * *

By the time they reached the cave it was lightly raining, as he worked on building them a fire he wondered if she would answer his questions. After all, the questions he wanted answers to revolved around her husband, around a future he did not belong in.

"Itachi-san," after five minutes of the rain filling the silence Sakura's quiet voice seemed too loud, "could you help me remove my cloak?" Sakura was taken off guard when instead of helping her remove her own, he removed his. He placed it on the ground far away enough from where the fire would be, he folded it up just enough to fit Sarada on it.

Sakura did not question how he knew she wanted to lay Sarada on her cloak, but she was thankful he knew. The silence that followed Sarada being laid down was filled with unasked questions, but Sakura decided to answer the one that Itachi was afraid to ask, "he is happy, he has moments where the weight crushes him, but they are not as common as they once were. You do not have to feel guilty, you were a child then, no matter how skilled, you were still just a child. You were used against your father knowing a parent would never fight their child, he not only knows this, but understands it. Sasuke told me so himself," Sakura knew he was listening, even if his eyes were on Sarada, his mind was processing her words.

"I am glad. Here he is full of anger and resentment, I was beginning to question if killing Sasuke would be better for everyone." Noticing Sakura's shocked reaction, he quickly added, "I don't know if I could do it, killing my brother would be difficult, but seeing him engulfed in darkness, it is not something I want, he was such a sweet boy. I did not think the darkness would ever get such a strong hold on him."

There was guilt in Itachi's voice, while some would believe it was born from the suffering he inflicted on Sasuke, Sakura knew that it was also from Itachi being aware that no matter what happened he would not and could not kill Sasuke. Not even for the sake of saving him from darkness would Itachi truly wish to hurt his brother, and Sakura understood that feeling all too well, for she too once considered killing Sasuke. "It works out Itachi-san, do not worry."

"Sarada does not appear to even be one month old, why are you and Sasuke traveling?" What Itachi wanted to ask was, _did you run away with him?_ She said Sasuke was happy, not that he returned to Konoha.

Sakura was not deceived by his question and decided to explain, "we were traveling when we decided to get married, and when we found out I was expecting we were far from Konoha. We started making our way back, but our pace was so slow, that when I went into labor we were still too far from Konoha." As she spoke Sarada began to stir with the noise, noticing this she lowered her voice, "Sasuke wanted to wait until Sarada was a bit older to travel, but since Konoha is not too far I convinced him to leave sooner rather than later."

"Ah. And how did you end up going back in time?" That was a loaded question and he knew it by her eyes, she was easy to read, _ironic for an Uchiha._

"Your brother sent me here, but I am positive it was not on purpose. It was early, Sarada was crying, which alerted the missing ninja that attacked us. I was holding Sarada, I had managed to calm her down, but it didn't matter they knew she was there, I was about to fight back, and suddenly I was here. Your brother sent us away, the fight should have ended by now. His victory is not what concerns me though." It was clear Sakura wanted to say more, but she was silent after that.

Itachi was tired of the silent questions in the air, but he knew they were both afraid of what could be revealed. What if she said something that made him waiver in his acceptance of death? What would be the outcome? Would the little girl currently napping cease to exist?

Regardless of anything the longer Sakura and Sarada remained the more dangerous it became, the most he could stay with them before Zetsu would come looking for him would be two days (Kisame would not care enough to question his absence), but it would be too dangerous for Sakura and Sarada to remain here without someone to protect them. She had claimed Sasuke was being too protective, implied it to be overbearing even, but her exhaustion was evident. No matter how great her chakra control may be, it took about six months before chakra could be used normally after a pregnancy. He couldn't leave them alone, but he also could not risk Zetsu finding them. Zetsu finding them would put even the Sakura of the present timeline in danger.

Itachi was so focused on his thoughts he had not noticed that Sakura had laid down and fallen asleep next to Sarada. He took this opportunity to approach them and study Sarada, _his niece_. What a strange concept, he had hoped Sasuke would one day have his own family, but he never believed it. The darkness he had created in his brother had a strong hold on him, but looking at Sarada, _his niece_ (he had to say it in his mind because saying it out loud was too surreal, he had to say it in his thoughts because this was _his niece,_ and he could not wrap his mind around it) _,_ he felt a sense of calm and longing.

Suddenly those feelings shattered, when he remembered because of him, this little girl would never meet Grandfather Fugaku, or Grandmother Mikoto. He gave himself the chance to imagine, if only for a second, what his parents would have said about their granddaughter. How they would have spoiled the little girl, how they would have loved her. His mother would have bought her so many dresses and dolls, she always wanted a little girl. Fugaku would have been stern, but she would have had him wrapped around her finger. He knew this, because already he knew that this little girl would only have to ask and he would give her anything.

Shaking the thoughts from his mind, he decides to act. Sasuke would come for his family, he knew this, Sakura knew this, the problem was when. Sending people back in time would have taken a lot of chakra, and Sasuke would need time to recover, if anyone discovered him with Sakura and Sarada they would conclude he is the father. Gossip spreads fast amongst shinobi, even his brother would hear, he knew Sasuke was already on his trail. Being here was dangerous, but it is not like he could ask someone else to watch over them, he trusted no one else, and he doubted Sakura would trust anybody else.

He summons a crow to watch over the area he found Sakura and Sarada, when his brother shows, the crow would be enough for Sasuke to know with who they are, whether that was comforting or not, he did not know.

He could not risk Zetsu checking up on him, and he could not risk his own timeline's Sasuke trailing him here. He did not know how long he would be unable to leave the area, he needed to lead his brother and Zetsu somewhere else as a precaution. The rain would help cover him, but it would not help much.

* * *

Sakura woke up to Sarada wide awake and kicking expecting Sasuke to be laying down on Sarada's other side. Instead she discovered that Itachi was standing by the cave's entrance watching the rain. "How long was I asleep for?"

"Long enough for me to place traps in the area and to stop by a nearby town to buy you some supplies for Sarada. I assumed you might need them." For all the answers she was expecting, that one was not anywhere near her list, and it showed, but now that she looked around her she noticed there was a few bags by his feet, unlike Itachi however, the bags appeared to be wet.

"Thank you, but you really didn't have too." Knowing he was about to protest, she added, "besides I don't think being in Akatsuki leaves you much."

"There is not much I can do for her, or will be able to do for her, so allow me to do this." There was something in his voice, in the way he was standing, that made her realize he was not looking at the rain, but avoiding looking at her and Sarada. Deciding to give him some space she made herself busy by checking up on Sarada.

Itachi could hear Sakura cooing and awing at Sarada. It was nice, more than nice he decided, to be surrounded by family, and if he closed his eyes he could imagine that they were not in a cave. After a few more minutes of Sakura playing with Sarada he heard her curse, realize what she said, and apologize to Sarada. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't suppose you bought some diapers?" He nodded a yes in her direction and began to look for the diapers in one of the bags, as he handed them to Sakura she had an amused gleam in her eyes as she said, "I am now really glad you spent the money."

"It was my pleasure; do you require anything else? I also bought her some clothes, and a blanket." There was a tone of desperation in his voice he hoped she would not notice.

"I actually do need to change her clothes." Itachi was positive she was lying about the need, but just as he was aware of the fact this was his only chance to be a dotting uncle, she was too. Sakura was giving him the chance to see Sarada in something he was giving to her. Part of him realized that it was selfish to want to have Sarada receive a change of clothes just for his sake, the other side of him understood it was his only chance. He went to pick out the clothes for Sarada but suddenly he could not decide, _what would she look like in pink? Maybe the pants with the strawberry on the butt? The onesie with the bunny? Something red maybe, red would look good on her_. "Seems your uncle can't decide what to dress you in. Which shouldn't be the case because he should not have bought you so many things."

Sakura had not said it to rush him, he knew this, but he did feel his face heat up in embarrassment. At the end, he settled for the onesie with the bunny, and while the rain seemed to finally be coming to an end, he wanted Sarada to be warm. Which is why he decided to bring along the small blanket he bought for her.

"You have been here for a few hours now, do you think Sasuke knows where you are by now?" Though as he said, they had been here for a few hours he still struggled to grasp that they were in fact here. Denial still had a hold on him, and he could see Sakura struggled with it too. Would his brother be able to conclude that his family was in the past?

"I hope so. It is not safe for us to be here, not for you, or Sarada and me. I honestly want to kill your brother right now. Though it has been nice getting to know you, and Sarada has enjoyed your presence as well."

"Sarada and you have been asleep most of the time." Sakura knew he was correct but he was also wrong.

Sakura abruptly stopped in the middle of dressing Sarada, gave him a stern look and said, "I have gotten to know you, and Sarada has too. You haven't left my side once, you probably used shadow clones to go buy those things for Sarada with however little money you have. You set up traps all over the area, some really advanced genjutsu from what I can tell. You've done all this for us, while sick, if being married to Sasuke has taught me anything, is that actions reveal more about a person."

Itachi did not respond to her words, but she could almost see the gratitude radiating from him, and when he spoke there was pride in his voice when he asked, "so he is a good husband?"

"Yes, and a good father, up until he sent us back in time that is. Now I'm pondering divorce." He laughed at her joke, a true laugh, one that lifted his spirits even higher than he thought possible. For Itachi it had been so long since he felt this kind of joy. He laughed because she was feisty (and probably had his brother giving in), he laughed because it finally hit him, that his brother was happy (because it was still difficult to look at this woman and child and think of them as his brother's family). Sasuke had a family, a wife and a little girl, and before he was aware of it he was crying, because he to now had a family, even if it would be short lived.

"You must think I am slightly mad."

"On the contrary," she responded with a smile, "Itachi-san, I think you are very happy."

Once Itachi composed himself, he decided to mention his plan, he knew she would not be happy, but he knew she was reasonable. "If Sasuke is not here by morning, we will go into the nearby town, we will stay at an inn, I do not have much money, but we cannot stay here for long. I have already set up traps in the area and left fake trails, I also left a crow by where I found you two, when Sasuke shows up, the crow will lead him to us."

"Why can't we stay here longer?" He saw the anger brewing beneath the surface, he wondered if she was normally this quick to anger, or if it was the stress of the day getting to her.

"It is not safe, there is a member in Akatsuki that would come to check up on me if I take too long, not to mention, your Sasuke is the one we are hoping for, not mine. Sasuke killed Orochimaru a few weeks back, that means he will be looking for me if not already looking for me. Since I never accounted for today's events, I have been careless with my trail, some may say I may even be leading him to a destination."

"They seem to both be after you, I'll stay here and wait for Sasuke, if they are after you they will not even notice me." He could see in her eyes that while she seemed resolute in her decision, she was considering the pros and the cons of staying a lone with an infant.

"Zetsu and Sasuke are not the only dangers, if they were, you would not be here. We do not know when Sasuke will come for you, it could be within two hours or two weeks, we don't know. In that time, you would be exposing Sarada to those dangers, and I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you two. You are Sasuke's family and by default mine as well.I will not let my brother lose his family. Now if he is not here by morning we will go to the town and that is final."

Sasuke had once told her that Itachi had a way of talking when he was mad, he would not sound angry, instead he would be irritatingly calm, and that it somehow made you listen and obey, she once replied "like you then?" he answered "not like me, he used to make me feel small, sure I was a child, but not even my parents could scare me like Itachi." Sakura now understood what he meant, still she glanced at Sarada considering her options, to go willingly, or fighting all the way. "Fine, but I am only doing this for Sarada."

"Now that we have decided that, I sent a clone to catch some fish, earlier he should be here soon." He heard her say something under her breath but he chooses to ignore it after all, he hadn't given her a choice or a say in the plan.

* * *

A/N: first chapter finally together at last, i put the lines so that you would know what was once its own little chapter. What i learned from this experience is to change chapter titles while I do this... lesson learned.. hopefully. I am thinking of a new summary since i dont think it fits anymore since i changed the direction of the story... to reference the author note that once was I am trying to convey that while Sakura and Itachi feel comfortable enough around each other, there is still this awkwardness in the air between them... this will not be an ItaSaku story, nothing against the pairing but SasuSaku is my only ship in general... Hope you guys enjoy the story, also i dont care if you tell me the story sucks just tell me why, and don't be afraid to tell me things you do not like about the story. Fanfiction for me is practice writing, and i cannot improve if you guys don't help.


	3. Chapter 2

Neither her or Itachi managed much sleep, it was in part due to the anxiety of waiting for Sasuke to show up, the other was Sarada. She spent much of the night crying, and no matter what Sakura did, Sarada would not stop, she wasn't hungry, she wasn't hot, she wasn't cold, her diaper was not dirty, and Sakura was beyond frustrated.

When Sakura apologized to Itachi for Sarada's crying, he simply responded with "I was not planning on sleeping, and this is one way to stay alert." While he seemed calm about the whole ordeal, she knew he had to be slightly frustrated with Sarada's crying, if she as her mother was ready to cry alongside Sarada, Itachi must be considering running away. She blamed Sasuke for Sarada's crying, he always held her during the night, he would walk around with her in his arm, he got her accustomed to his presence at night, and Sarada was clearly missing him (and Sakura wondered endlessly that night how can a baby have formed a habit already and how did she not notice?).

By the time the sun had risen Sarada had barely closed her eyes, and Sakura felt like she could finally breath in peace, and while Itachi claimed he had not minded the crying, she saw him sigh in relief. Deciding to take advantage of Sarada's silence (also due to Sakura not looking like she was going to argue) Itachi began getting the things ready so that they go into the town. It was after all a fair distance when traveling a civilian speed, and with Sakura's exhaustion he would not doubt if she would fall asleep walking. "We will stay by where I found you two for an hour, afterwards, we will go to the town, we cannot stay here."

As expected, she didn't argue, she nodded her acquiescence, she looked too tired to truly care what he had to say, he felt bad for taking advantage of her in this manner, but he also doubted she would have made this easy on him. After all, when she agreed to go with his plan she seemed to go deep in thought, and he didn't doubt that if she had the energy for it she would have acted out whatever plan she had in mind.

Their walk to the location was a quiet one both too afraid to wake Sarada up, he wondered if that was usually the case with his brother and Sakura when Sarada was sleeping, after all they were both working hard to avoid even stepping on a leaf. He found it amusing how afraid he was of a little girl that could not possibly be more than a month old, even more amusing was the thought of his brother carrying that fear. Once they reached their destination, Sakura seemed to want to say something her hesitation was clearly due to holding Sarada and not wanting to wake her up, so for half an hour Sakura looked like she wanted to say something, and Itachi like he was ready to listen Eventually tired the endless game he approached her and as quietly as he could finally broke the silence, "what's on your mind?"

"Will the crow be enough for him to know? I was thinking we could leave it something so that he could be certain, maybe something of Sarada's, one her socks maybe, or even a-"

"Not many shinobi are associated with crows, this is the safest way, we cannot leave any signs that there is in anyway an infant connected to me." He understood her logic it was a reasonable idea, but he saw her deflate a little when he shot her down.

"What if instead of something to do with Sarada, we leave behind some of my hair? Before you shoot it down, Sasuke knows that the only time I ever saw you face to face was before I defeated Sasori," she emphazied saw since they hadn't technically met then. "I had short hair then, if we leave the crow with some of my hair he'll know I'm with you. The area looks about the same as when Sasuke and I spent the night here, the trees are shorter," She seemed happy with the idea and he too thought it was a good idea until he remembered on small detail.

"Others may pass through the area, I've only ever seen or heard of one ninja with pink hair, you are quite popular for one so young. Pink hair is associated with you, and crows are associated with me, this would not bode well for the you running around in this time." He saw her eyes harden and she was ready to argue, "Did Sasuke use his sharingan to send you here? If he did once he comes here his sharingan would still be activated. He would be able to see chakra, if you infuse a little of your chakra on the crow, and he should be able to make the same connection." If he was honest with himself he knew leaving any sign of Sakura and Sarada was dangerous, but he also knew Sakura was worried, her exhaustion could not hide that.

Itachi knew that Sakura's fear was not unfounded, she was trying to cover all her bases for the sake of Sasuke finding them. The way Sasuke thought, the way he acted, who he was, no one would know Sasuke like his own wife would, or does. Thus, he would give in this time, because the goal was to get Sakura and Sarada back to Sasuke, and they needed to leave no room for doubt when Sasuke showed up as to where they were. "When Sasuke shows up the crow already has instructions to get his attention anyway it can, from there, it will force Sasuke to follow it. Your chakra should stay in its system for two days, if he still has yet to show up, we'll send another one infused with your chakra." What went unsaid was their hope that it would not come to that.

In Sakura's opinion, the hour ended rather soon, she was anxious at the thought of leaving the area, of not being close enough to sense when Sasuke showed, and she was just simply exhausted. She had not had a proper night sleep since before she was pregnant, her pregnancy had made her slightly miserable, Sasuke told her she was "glowing," which had surprised her, but at the time she was sweating, and ended up being offended by it. After giving birth Sarada would wake every two hours hungry, and while she was aware that Sasuke was the one caring for Sarada throughout the night, he couldn't exactly feed her. Still, she would admit that having him be the one after Sarada throughout the night had helped her rest, but not exactly sleep.

Her lack of sleep was likely one of the reasons she was so hard headed over leaving for Konoha, and why Sasuke relented. Now after being here for a little over 24 hours, he she wasn't just physically exhausted but emotionally as well. Itachi was not bad company, he was just company she should not be near, and every minute that passed with here in his presence she wondered if Sasuke would find them. Every time that thought came to mind she shook it off knowing Sasuke would never give up on finding them.

It was two hours since leaving the clearing, and part of him hated the silence when there was so much yet to learn, the other part of him appreciated that Sarada was still sleeping because that little girl had some strong lungs. It had been an exhausting night in which he wondered if Sarada was only calm during the day, but he had also heard Sakura tell Sarada "I know you miss papa," and he concluded his little brother had night duty. Last night it had been easy to tell that Sarada was not alone in missing Sasuke, and the moment Sakura's thoughts were clearly written all over her, from her body language, to her eyes. Deciding it was best to have keep her dark thoughts away he decided to break the silence, "sending you through time would have taken a lot of chakra, he probably needs to recover. If time travel were that easy many would have taken advantage of it by now." Gaining confidence in her reaction to his words he decided to continue, "it is almost better he has yet to show up."

Sakura stopped suddenly, and for a moment he was questioning if he messed up, but then he felt it, there was difference in the air. It was not chakra, it was like a smell, a feeling, just something to be sensed, and it was coming from, nowhere, because as suddenly as it came it vanished. Itachi looked to Sakura, waiting for a confirmation of some kind, a reaction, some sort of order, but instead she seemed unaffected, he decided she was surprised, "I will send a shadow clone to check it."

He was in the process of making the hand signs when Sakura stopped him, "no, he won't be there. It feels different when someone goes through compared to when the portal is open. We shouldn't waste time in getting to the town." Itachi simply nodded, she was no longer against the idea of going to the nearby town, while he would appreciate knowing why he preferred that she was at least going for his idea more willingly. In fact, she was walking faster towards their destination. "I don't know why you're staying behind, but it would be better if we move, we were likely not alone in feeling that. Others will begin to investigate, and we do not have a way of knowing who they will be." _Ah_ , t _hat would be why._

* * *

Sasuke was growing more desperate by the hour, he had given himself a chance to rest, to build up his chakra, but no matter how much he tried he could not bring them back, he couldn't even open a portal to where they were, his effort was just wasting chakra. The only thing he concluded is that he could not open the portal without knowing what he was trying to open. Which was even more evidence of how badly he messed up, for what felt like the millionth time he went through the events of the day focusing on his thoughts, on his emotions of that day while trying to open a portal, and suddenly it was there.

As quickly as it appeared it was gone, and he still wasn't sure how he did it, but he knew the reason it vanished was his lack of chakra. The reason the portal closed was his lack of chakra! For once in the past 24 hours he had some hope, something to truly aim for, he would just look for something in common in those two events, and he would not waste his chakra in the slightest, he decided that tonight he would go to his family no matter what.

* * *

Itachi knew he was making the trip the longer than necessary, but he didn't want to enter the town with them in broad daylight, but he also couldn't have them stay in the cave for too long either (and he also didn't want to let her have energy to act out whatever plan she had come up with). He decided they would rest, and that those breaks would be long. Entering the town in the cover of darkness was more convenient, but it was also convenient to not stray too far from where he initially found Sakura and Sarada, just in case Sasuke showed up, it would be better for them to return home sooner rather than later. Being so slow in travelling had those conveniences, but as they travelled he could see Sakura's patience slowly dissipating.

To keep her from scolding him (because he could tell she was ready) he decided to play dirty. He remembered every word she had said to him, including that she knew he was sick. She was training under Tsunade (at least in his time), which meant she would be observant, every so often he would shorten his steps just a little, a few minutes after doing that, he would slow his actual pace down, he then made his breathing come in a little louder. With that Sakura's anger towards him vanished, instead there was a silent understanding in her eyes. Itachi almost felt bad for doing this, but he too was exhausted and stressed from Sarada's crying the previous night. While it had been no lie that he had not intended to sleep, Sarada did too good of a job at keeping him awake, if he was a weaker man he would have offered to hold Sarada, or maybe if he was a stronger man?

By the time they reached the town it was already dark, and based on the calculations Sakura did in her head, it should not have taken them so long to arrive even when considering Sarada, and the speed they were walking in, and their exhaustion, it took them _too long._ At first Sakura thought Itachi was being too considerate of her lack of sleep, of Sarada's hunger, she thought he was spoiling them. She had been watching him slowly, waiting for a chance to scold him about it when she started noticing that his pace would slow down just a little. That's when she remembered that he was sick, and that maybe they were taking so many breaks for his sake. She started to believe this until he began to breath loudly, it was too purposeful, still her frustration faded, and understanding took its place, _he is too tired to deal with my anger._ She let it go because she knew where it was coming from, and as much as he was faking now, he was truly sick, even if now he felt fine enough to fake it.

They had decided along the way it would be best to separate once they reached the town. Itachi would follow close behind but he would not be in sight, at least not if you didn't know where to look. The problem lay in that when Itachi had sent a shadow clone into the town, the clone had not bothered to look for an inn, _for someone so smart how did he overlook this?_ It was a small town, and within ten minutes she located the inn, before entering she signaled at Itachi.

Sakura was ridiculously nervous requesting a room, she was hoping she would not attract too much attention, but showing up with an infant in your arms in the middle of the night, was bound to leave a mark on his memory. She was hoping the mark would be small, Itachi was going to use his sharingan to remove her from the man's mind, but it wasn't like she would be gone, the memory would just be altered. However, another sharingan could easily retrieve the memory, like Obito's, or a young Sasuke. Which is why they were going to all the trouble, she knew the danger in store for Sarada and herself if she was not careful, and she was in a way putting her daughter in the line of fire. Sakura did not like that at all. In the forest, there had been the option to hide, here in middle of a town, no matter how small she would always be surrounded.

She hated the whole plan, and as she spoke to the man requesting the room, she wondered how she was spending another night in a time that she did not belong in. She hardly registered the man's words, because now that she was in the inn, she felt like her and Itachi were performers at a circus, with depending on who found them first (her Sasuke, his Sasuke, Zetsu and by default Obito) depended the grand finale. Still as she entered her room and laid Sarada on the bed, she could not help but appreciate the irony of her situation, this time's Sakura would love to run into Sasuke, but she was wanted nothing to do with him.

Itachi waited an hour before requesting his own room, the first thing he did was investigate what room number he should request. Once that was done he considered leaving a crow to be on constant patrol of the town, then decided against it for the fear of it drawing to much attention. He hated the situation, Sakura and Sarada were currently in, they were safest with him, but also at higher risk in his presence. Every minute Sakura and Sarada spent in the past was even more dangerous than the last, and already they were going on their second night. Being from the future, being Sasuke's family, being with him, it was having them carry giant targets on their backs. No matter how careful they were being he knew that if Sasuke did not come for her within a week (at the most) the danger they would face would be beyond the protection he could offer them. Not to mention his status as a double agent could be exposed, after all if it came down to deciding, defending and protecting Sakura and Sarada came as the priority.

When he was at the inn he went straight to his room (luckily for him he was able to get a room across Sakura's), but now that they were in the inn, he wondered what came next? Patience was a virtue that he possessed, but this type of waiting game, was too much even for him. He had not spoken to Sakura about the possibility of her and Sarada being stuck here longer than two days, he mentioned it, but it was not something either of them truly wanted to consider. Already he left fake trails, and with Kisame having left already it would make avoiding his Sasuke slightly easier, Zetsu was a different problem that would be more intrigued by the separation.

He could hear Sarada's crying as he approached the room, but if he had been unable to help while being able to be right there in the cave, he doubted he could help now. While he did feel pity on Sakura, the was also something about Sarada's crying that brought him some joy. If he was honest with himself the whole situation was bittersweet; he was able to meet his brother's family. A family he had doubted would ever exist, he had up until meeting them considered the possibility of killing Sasuke, but he doubted he could go through with it. Now he knew his brother needed to live, his brother would redeem himself and he would find the light that he himself took from him. It was that thought that allowed for some peace of mind and Sarada's crying was like music to his ears, it allowed him to dream of a world in which his parents could spoil Sarada, and in a world in which Sasuke would not keep Sarada from him. A world in which he could hold her without shame, it was a simple a dream, but sometimes the most beautiful things were so due to their simplicity not their grandeur.

* * *

Itachi and Sakura had agreed that he would close his door loud enough for her to be able to tell where he would be at. However, when it did occur she could barely hear it over Sarada's crying, because her little girl decided that she missed her Papa at night, but during the day the crying was only for hunger, or dirty diaper. At night, it was for Sasuke, and nothing she did was good enough, she even henged into Sasuke! Somehow her not even one month old daughter knew she was not him. The one good thing she had going was that it was a relatively empty inn, and the walls were not paper thin, the only reason she knew where Itachi was because she left her door slightly ajar just to make sure she knew when he arrived.

This was a good sign, it meant that Sarada's presence within the inn could be hidden for some time. She was grateful towards Itachi, and thanked all the gods imaginable that it had been Itachi who found them, still the anxiety she felt at still being in the past, was too much. Her lack of sleep, the frustration she felt towards herself, Sarada's crying for Sasuke (because she too missed him), everything was just _so wrong_ , and Sakura was simply overwhelmed. The only thing that kept Sakura from crying was the knowledge that it would be a total shut down, and Sarada needed her mama.

Itachi only allowed himself to sleep a for a few hours, and while reluctant to wake up, Sarada's crying brought in a wave of guilt, Sakura's exhaustion was worse than his, and if anyone deserved rest, was a new mother. Reluctance to awake was not the same an unwilling too, and thus he got himself ready and went to Sakura's room, if he had thought Sarada's crying was loud echoing through the cave, in the small room Sakura was in, it was somehow worse, almost suffocating. Itachi could see Sakura rocking Sarada back and forth, and humming a song for her, but he doubted Sarada could even hear her mother over her own shrieking.

It took Sakura longer than it should have to notice Itachi was now in her room, though they had agreed to reaunite in her room, she was surprised to discover the time had now come, "I'm sorry, Sarada is not usually like this, normally she just wakes up because of a dirty diaper, or because she is hungry, but…"

"I said this last night, and I will say this as many times as I have too, you have nothing to apologize for. I managed to sleep a for some time. I'm more concerned about you, Sarada will likely tire herself out by morning once more. I will be here until I can't or shouldn't." Sakura felt horrible that she didn't register any of what Itachi said to her, still she smiled at him, though by the look he gave her she could tell he was not fooled, but he was not offended, instead he had a way of being silently understanding, and Sakura wondered if this is what having an older brother was like.

The previous night's incident was repeated, with Sarada crying all night and the only moments of silence being when Sakura was nursing, like the previous night Itachi had a longing in his eyes, he desperately wanted to hold Sarada to not only provide some sort of aid to Sakura, but to simply hold her. It was out of love and respect for his brother that he kept from offering to hold Sarada, he found himself forcing his arm's down more than the previous night. _I will not hold Sarada without his consent._ Simple words that he repeated, it was easier to say that to himself than to say "you killed her family you have no right." It was strange, how different his love for Sarada was, it was more protective, it was more definitive, more black and white of what was acceptable as opposed to with his brother. He concluded this the moment he realized he had no right to love Sarada, but had no shame about his love for the girl's father. He felt dirty in the presence of Sarada, and Sakura too, he tainted his brother in darkness, and they cleansed him, he took Sasuke's family, Sakura gave him a family. His mind went on for until the sun was rising, giving him more reasons as to why he had no right, it was slowly becoming more difficult to ignore his thoughts, to push them to the back of his mind, and when Sarada was finally asleep he had succeeded in eradicating most of those thoughts. When it finally registered that Sarada was truly asleep he was shameless enough to sigh in relief, he had not been alone, and when he looked to Sakura to apologize for his behaviors she simply smiled at him, but he could tell sleep was not far off for Sakura.

* * *

Determination alone could be thanked for finally being where he was certain his wife and daughter were. He said he would arrive that night, and he did, he saved up chakra, he focused on Sakura, thinking only of her, he remembered his feelings at the time it all occurred. He knew it was determination alone, because all he could do upon his arrival was move his head , his limbs felt heavy, and again it was determination that gave him the strength to look up. He could only register that the tree that was across from him looked smaller and that on one of the branches there was a very familiar looking bird, and suddenly he knew no more, he felt his body give in, give up, and everything went black.

By the time he came too he could see the sun was barely rising but he was no longer alone, nor was he free, whoever captured him had tied him to a tree though his bindings were loose. He wondered if he had gone through the portal, after all is surroundings were much the same. Even the crow could have been a fixture of his imagination, maybe he had just fallen asleep? That did not feel right to say, he could feel that his chakra levels were low. "I know you are awake." _That voice. Karin?_

* * *

 ** _A/N: I want to apologize if this confuses any readers as to what is new, but the new content is near the end. I just didn't want to give such a small update and since idk when I will be able to update again I decided to have this chapter fixed and complete, but I probably should not have done that. Anyway this is the one time I will combine a chapter before I publish the start of the next one, but this way when I can work on it again, I can just start the new chapter, kind of selfish reasoning, but it gives a sense of a fresh start.  
_**


	4. Chapter 3 pt 1

The sun was barely making itself known when they discovered the unexpected, her head hurt simply at the discovery, but finding _that_ man on the ground with a crow patiently waiting near him, _for him?_ The crow had hints of someone else's chakra, and it was this that infuriated Sasuke, the anger was boiling near the surface she pitied the imbecile who angered him so (even though the crow was enough to tell her who it was). Sasuke's anger was almost tangible, but so was his confusion when within seconds of their arrival, the crow flew from the man faced down on the grown to him. In a way Karin thanked the gods for the switch (it would draw all their attention from the man, that couldn't be but somehow was who he was.)

The crow was loud and determined to get Sasuke's attention, though the determination was a little overboard in Karin's opinion, its mere presence gave it all Sasuke's attention. In the back of her mind Karin registered that this could not possibly be good, but at the forefront was the man on the ground, and it was this that led to her ignore the fact that Sasuke would walk into anything if it involved his brother. "You know it's probably a trap? We can't just go following crows, if he is involved with the weird chakra Karin felt, we are fucked, we haven't stopped since Karin first felt it."

They must truly be drowning in ignorance if Suigetsu was the voice of reason, but somehow, she felt overwhelmed with information. There were so many questions going on in her head that, she didn't care that they were drowning. The impossibility of their current situation was making her question her sensor abilities (her sanity too), Karin felt herself forgetting how to breathe and as she struggled the only thing on her mind was _now what?_ Was she supposed to let Sasuke know? Stay quiet and question the man on the ground? Feign ignorance? Distracted by her own thoughts she did not notice when Sasuke left, but how could she when she felt him so close?

Once she finally noticed Sasuke's absence it was easier to gather her thoughts, "Suigetsu go with Sasuke and take Juugo. I'll stay with this guy, find out what I can then catch up." To her surprise they both followed her directions, once she sensed their chakra a good distance away, she got to work on the Sasuke on the ground. From what she could tell this older Sasuke was just suffering from chakra deprivation, he was likely the cause for the ripples in the air. A time ripple? A rip? The air felt normal to her, the echoes that had brought them here had slowly stopped, and by the time they reached the man on the ground (because she couldn't yet call him by his name) they could no longer be felt, instead they were following the direction they seemed to have come from, unknowingly stumbling into something more complex. As she adjusted the man on the ground to bite into her, her thoughts once more went wild, she wondered is staying behind was indeed the better choice, should she have tried to catch up to him and let him know. What is even the protocol for such a situation? _Hey this is you, you have the same exact chakra just really small differences that tend to happen to chakra with age._

Considering all that happened in less than ten minutes, she was well aware that he would not have listened. The crow had wanted Sasuke's attention, and fuck if it hadn't gotten his attention immediately. He had been angry, worried even, the chakra that the crow was infused with, had been different, it was soft, warm, and bright. Shaking herself out of her stupor she decided to focus on the problem at hand. Once she began to feel dizzy she freed herself, she knew it wasn't enough but she could not help him further.

It was two hours alone with the man on the ground when he began to stir, "I know you are awake." She saw him look at his surroundings, but not sparing her even a glance, _some things never change._

"Karin what are you doing here."

Slightly offended by his tone responded. "a better question is, what are you doing here? You don't belong here." It was at her words that he finally looked at her, truly looked at her, his one visible eye widened. "So, tell me Sasuke-kun, what are you doing here?"

There was a moment of silence, in which he stood up and walked around aimlessly in the area, she assumed he was gathering his thoughts. "To be perfectly honest I'm not sure what I am doing here, or how. When I was…traveling here, I sensed my…" there was clear hesitation to reveal too much, but also a search for the correct word, before finally settling, "one of my companion's chakra. It was that presence that I clung to as I travelled. Was there a woman here when you arrived?"

There was hope in his voice, and she didn't want to be the one to shatter it, but she did not hesitate to answer. "No, however there was a crow infused with chakra, I think it was waiting for you."

"Where is the crow now?" He was trying to disguise the desperation in his voice, but even he knew he failing. "Karin, where is the crow?!" This time he did not bother to try and maintain calm.

"You followed the crow, once we arrived! Well not you but the younger you, I don't think it was given instructions besides "bring Sasuke here," so all it did was pick the one that could walk. "

Sasuke was positive the chakra he saw as he went down was Sakura's, a crow was waiting for him to wake up, it was one of Itachi's crows, he was thinking of Itachi when he accidentally sent them away. Had his desire to protect them been so much that he sent them through time? He didn't have time to ponder that as he recalled the most important aspect of what she said, _he_ went after them, the teenager he once was is currently chasing a crow probably leading directly to Sakura and Sarada, and he was still pretty low on chakra. "Do you know what direction they went?"

"Yes, but they left two hours ago," pointing in the direction they went she added, "you won't be able to catch up to them."

* * *

 **A/N: sorry it took so long for such a small update, especially since its just a filler. I don't know when I will update next, I like writing when I am alone, and I have privacy and I don't have that in the slightest at the moment. Karin is out of character cause I can't write her in the slightest, but I hope I gave enough reasons for a calmer Karin, given her situation, anyway thank you guys for reading**


	5. Chapter 3 pt 2

It was not his first excursion into the "great outdoors," as Sakura put it, he knew her words were borne not from a place of malice but of boredom, nor was it his second. It was during the third check, the one Sakura had told him not to take, that he saw his brother, from his location he could see him clearly, and unfortunately, his eyes were not deceiving him, this was his brother, his _teenage_ brother, not the adult, following the crow. Thinking quickly, he made the summon go away, it would not be good for the crow to lead him straight to him.

The crow had been infused with a bit of Sakura's chakra, he had no doubt that's why his brother looked angry, his posture was stiff, and his eyes were roaming the perimeter, one hand at his sword. If he didn't know his brother the way he did, he would think this reaction was simply out of the possibility of his presence, but Itachi knew better, he knew it was Sakura's chakra that had triggered this reaction.

While Itachi was labeling his brother's reaction as cute, he also understood how bad the situation was. The crow had led the wrong Sasuke to him, watching his brother he understood one thing, showing himself now, would not have any results. His brother would not give him a chance to talk, he would seek out Sakura, and he would eventually find her. Itachi couldn't afford to move, not with his brother watching everything so closely, there were no large crowds for cover, _would it be so bad if he met them?_ He let his mind wander to the best-case scenario, even as he considered this, he knew Sasuke was a danger to Sakura and Sarada.

He had to deal with one problem at a time, and his problem was leaving the immediate area to warn Sakura. However, Sasuke was intent on finding something off with the area, staying still was really his only choice. "Finally, you were in such a rush, you really need to slow down, this is so obviously, a trap." Itachi didn't know who the guy was, but he didn't care, this was the diversion he needed.

Sasuke only saw slight movement, but beyond that, there was nothing there. Everything about today was strange, this game his brother was playing was out of character, but what did he know? He had never really known his brother. From the area, they found the man, there were multiple trails, all too obvious, they were meant to distract whoever went there, but the crow had been there too, waiting for _him_.

The entire situation was bizarre, his brother didn't want to be found, based on the multiple trails, but the crow had been determined to lead him to this location, stranger still the crow had still had a destination in mind when it vanished, it was still headed somewhere, the only reason it would vanish is if Itachi had been nearby. "Juugo, look for anything that seems strange. We'll meet up here in one hour. Suigetsu get us place to spend the night, we need to blend in." As for himself, he too would do his own investigating.

Sasuke knew he needed to separate himself from the situation, look at it objectively. Besides, Itachi using Sakura to get to him was absurd, but why else would the crow wait for him? He didn't know what he was expecting, but already he could tell things were beyond his control. If Sakura was with Itachi it was likely because of her healing capabilities, which would explain the different trails, he didn't want Sakura to be found by Konoha, but why the crow? The crow was the confusing aspect, if Itachi didn't want Sakura found why would the crow be leading him somewhere. The fact is that Itachi was near, he knew it, it wasn't just the crow vanishing, somewhere the moment he saw the small village he knew Itachi was there. Noticing that Suigetsu had yet to leave, he left first.

Suigetsu decided the situation was a pain, and maybe just maybe staying with Karin would have been the better choice, but he knew better, that girl was a pain in the ass that he did not want to deal with on a good day. Not caring for either of their wraths his choice was simply to obey, finding an inn was easy, he simply asked the first person he saw for directions.

As for getting the actual room, that was slightly more difficult, the goal was to blend in, yet he had no money to pay for the room, or an idea as to how long they would be staying. He also had no idea when Karin would show up (there was no way in hell she would let _Sasuke-kun_ go without her). Thus, instead of offering money, he offered the guy behind the counter a chance to live longer, as for selecting a room, he wanted one on the highest floor, but was disappointed to know that whole area was taken, and paid for already. When he questioned the man on how strange that was, the man added, "a young man showed up last night, paid for every room there, you just missed him. That's all I know. You can have the floor below it!"

Suigetsu sighed, but accepted the offer, he still had had forty minutes to spare before the meeting, entering the room he decided a short nap would be fine. As he laid down and closed his eyes however, he heard a crying baby coming from the room above him. _This was not a good day._

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** _I decided to be more subtle in how to show Sasuke is worried about Sakura, by not having him really think ahead, I also changed a lot of what I wanted to do because I was struggling so much with writing it. As always thank you for reading this!_


	6. Chapter 3 pt 3

Sakura almost jumped at the sight of Itachi, he usually lasted thirty minutes on his checks. She was about to question him when he spoke, "we have a problem." His voice was calm, but even as he spoke he went to organize Sarada's belongings, the ones he bought her (now in his rush he noticed he did buy her too many things), and began to pack.

"At least elaborate, before you pack up Sarada's things."

"Sasuke is here," before her hope could get too high he quickly added, "my little brother Sasuke, not your husband Sasuke." Ignoring how weird the words felt in his mouth Itachi continued to pack, struggling with a dress he bought for Sarada, Sakura took pity on him, took it and folded it up for him.

"And you think leaving is the best choice?" Sakura's tone implied that she did not agree.

Sighing Itachi replied, "it is the safest choice, which is what matters, keeping you two from any danger is my responsibility."

"Getting away from here is more dangerous! The further we get away from where you found us, the harder it will be for Sasuke to find us!"

"Sasuke is looking for you. The crow was leading him to me, your chakra was still in the crow, if he sees you I don't know what he will think. You are not a fool, if Sasuke sees you as you are, there two assumptions he can make. The most possible is that he will think Sarada is my child, which puts her in great danger. He will hurt her, to hurt me." By the look in her eyes Itachi could tell Sakura had considered this, however he went on, "the second choice is that he figures it out. Which let's face it, you are recognizable, and he concludes that Sarada is his, the fact is you have spent a lot of time with me. You have let me be close to her, you trusted me, and for him that would make you unworthy of keeping her. In his eyes, you would have been placing Sarada in danger. To be perfectly honest, I don't know which possibility is worse."

"I agree that keeping your Sasuke from finding us is the better choice. I also understand that you cannot tell him the truth about the massacre, it can change too many things, and they can't change. However, I am not leaving, I already agreed to come to this village, I wanted to stay in that cave, I am not leaving! I can protect myself, you can leave. You do not have to protect us as some kind of redemption for your past actions!"

Sakura regretted her choice of words the moment they were out, but she didn't get to see Itachi's face as her shouting scared Sarada. Unable to look at Itachi, she went to Sarada, completely overdoing the attention, she knew, but was more surprised when Itachi continued to fold Sarada's clothes and put them away. He knew that Sakura was right, protecting them, not leaving them, was a form of redemption for him, it was selfish to keep them near him under the circumstances. He was a risk to them, his involvement alone could draw the Akatsuki's attention, and by his actions they had already drawn in his younger brother. He needed to think of this objectively, not in a personal manner.

When Sarada grew silent again, Itachi was the one to break the silence, "I am sorry." Sakura was surprised, in her eyes she owed him the apology, "you are correct that a part of me is seeking redemption through my actions. By protecting you two, I protect Sasuke, however you are not just Sasuke's family, you are mine." Almost regretfully he added, "my brother being close however changes things, if your husband does not show up before the week is up, I will personally escort you to Konoha. You'll be safer there, the Hokage knows you, she will keep you hidden and safe, I will look for your husband personally. No crows, this time."

"I'm sorry too, shouldn't have said it like that. As if you are unworthy of being redeemed in your brother's eyes. You are." The silence that followed the room was filled with a question neither wanted to ask out loud, too afraid of the lack of answer, _now what?_ They had no way of predicting Sasuke's movements, of either of their Sasuke's, as far as Sakura and Itachi knew, her Sasuke may not even know how to get her back.

"You do not owe me an apology, Sasuke, you and Sarada should never seek forgiveness from me. Know that no matter what, there is nothing to forgive." The rest of the evening they spent playing cards, apperantly he carried them with him simply stating "criminals get bored too." She accepted his answer, besides they both needed a way to get rid of their stress even for a minute, taking advantage that Sarada was being good (not crying, just had a change of diaper, not hungry), as they played they asked each other questions about Sasuke.

* * *

 **A/N:** _to be honest I'm stuck, I know what to write next, and have an idea of the ending, but the problem with creating the story as you go along is that you change your mind so much, I kind of want to back away from this story, but I know if I do, I will never finish it, and it is a personal goal to finish this story.. this story never really had a goal though and that's the struggle in writing it now, because I can't decide how long it needs to be because I can't decide on aspects of the story, its just a general non committed idea as to how the story will progress... I have different routes I want to take this story... basically some writing advice, have an idea of what you want to say, and aim for that as you write... I failed miserably at that.. oops... anyway enjoy, and excuse the bad grammar... I plan to eventually fix it... when the whole story is done though..._


	7. Chapter 4 pt 1

Karin could feel his chakra fluctuate, could see how his movements would slow, saw Sasuke breath harder, and still he would continue. She assumed this had to do with him still being exhausted, however that was before she noticed a pattern to his weakness. "We need to stop." Sasuke glared at her, but older Sasuke's glare was soft in comparison to the one she had grown accustomed to, she was unfazed by his.

"We will do no such thing."

"Haven't you noticed? You can be such an idiot, as soon as your brother is involved you just focus on that."

"I don't remember you being so-" he paused looking for a word, "so petulant, towards me. We don't have time to waste."

"STUPID PAY ATTENTION! Every time we get too close to the other Sasuke, you become weaker, your chakra starts going crazy, and you slow down! That's why we haven't caught up to them, and the way things are, we can't."

"So, what then? You expect me to wait and let him get there?" His rage was barely contained, and it triggered something in Karin's mind, a conversation she once overheard.

She had to ask, she had to know, she didn't know why, but she _needed_ to know, even if a part of her knew the answer, "It's not your brother you are concerned about, you don't care about him at all do you? It's for Sakura right? That's her name, the partner that's in this time, is she your girlfriend or something?"

"She is my wife." He tried to remember bringing Sakura up in conversation with her in the past, but outside of delivering Sarada, he never mentioned Sakura to Karin. Curiosity triggered his question, "how do you know about her?"

Ignoring that she could still feel her heart shattering she answered, "Orochimaru and Kabuto mentioned once that you became reckless, and didn't think things through when it involved her in any form. They said something like "Itachi is an obsession, a way to distract him, but the girl is a weapon we can use," they kept a close eye on her from what I could tell. It's what you are doing now, both of you, now that I think about it. It's like you want to be killed."

He felt his anger rise at the idea of Orochimaru keeping tabs on Sakura, but how else could Orochimaru have given him the information on what Sakura was up too? It was foolish of him to only realize this now, it was pointless to get angry it was in the past, both his present and the one in which he belonged. Putting his anger away as best as he could, he focused on the problem at hand,"I didn't know there was a pattern, I thought it was just because I am still low on chakra. I can't detect myself nearby." Karin's words echoed in his mind _he couldn't get close to this timeline's Sasuke_ , "what happened when he was standing feet away from me?"

"I wasn't paying attention."

"That's helpful." Sarcasm was practically dripping from his stance, not wanting to let him get the last word on the subject she quickly defended herself.

"I was a little in shock at there being two of you to be focused on anything else. Besides you had such low reserves I could barely sense it." Nothing to say to that, he stood quietly trying to figure out how to go about this now, he needed a plan, a way to keep himself away from himself, stay a safe distance. He had to admit that seemed impossible since both their goals was to get to Sakura. Suddenly Karin spoke beside him, "how did your wife end up here?"

He considered lying to Karin save his pride a little, but she was helping him it was only fair to be honest, "I sent her here on accident."

"You could at least sound ashamed." Unaffected by the glare he sent her way, Karin was struck with a sudden realization, "wait, you are telling me that you sent the fifth Hokage's apprentice, to the past on accident? Why are you in such a hurry to find her? She is going to kill you, you deserve it. Forget about being an idiot, you are and imbecile."

He had no comeback, Karin was right and she didn't even know about Sarada. He needed to keep certain things to himself, they were in dangerous times, and he wasn't at his best, if he wasn't careful, even the younger Sakura could be in danger. The silenced stretch for a few minutes, both deep in their thoughts, Karin looking for a way to mend her broken heart, and Sasuke thinking of a way to go about things now. "I can't get too close, but you can. You can probably still catch up to him, with the way I am feeling he can't be too far off, tell him-"

"I'm going to stop you right there, have you met yourself?" She sounded so exasperated, and just so done with him, that it was hard not to feel offended. He could not remember a time with Karin speaking to him so freely, with no censors, no care as to how her words came. "Did you not hear me say you get reckless and don't think things through! You are doing it right now. Do you have any idea how dangerous the situation truly is? She is with your brother! The man that killed your family. Sure, your wife may be tough, but that's not who he is expecting there. He isn't expecting your wife there, he is expecting his-"she stopped there not knowing what to call her, she considered lover, girlfriend, crush. _What was she to him now?_ Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she added, "besides you don't look very good, I can't leave you like this."

"You are different from what I remember." She wanted to ask if that was good or bad, but knew by the look in his eyes that it wasn't the time. Sasuke was trying to think of a plan, he could not get too close, and sure the Sasuke of this time would not listen, but if it was unavoidable that he would get to her first he needed a way to get to her second. Sakura and Sarada's safety came first, above keeping the timeline as it was, above anything and everything. He needed Karin, being near his younger self weakened him too much.

"What I am going to say, you cannot tell anyone, and if the information ever comes to light you will act as if you knew nothing." No matter what angle he looked at it, he came to only one conclusion: she needed to know the truth about the massacre. He didn't know what he would encounter once he finally met up with Sakura and Sarada, but just in case, he needed someone to know the truth about Itachi. Someone else needed to know that Itachi was no danger to his wife.

* * *

 **A/N:** _sorry for the late update! I figured Sasuke had it too easy so something had to happen to him, I needed to limit his somehow or else the story would be too dull. There is a reason Karin is treating him so differently, she loves the Sasuke her age, she doesn't know the older Sasuke, to her he is just another person, I figured once her initial shock wore off she would just be mainly sass towards him_


	8. Chapter 4 pt 2

Suigetsu never thought he could miss Karin, her absence was often something he longed for, yet today proved that silence could be worse than her presence. The tension was palpable, Juugo was a naturally quiet person, but even he was clearly uncomfortable with the silence, neither wanted to break the silence, too afraid of the glare that would be sent their way. They were walking on eggshells, and Suigetsu hated every second of it.

After their reunion failed to find evidence of Itachi's presence, Sasuke had sent them once more, this time deciding to reunite at the inn Suigetsu found. Their second search proved as fruitless as the first one (though it was technically Suigetsu's first), and once that was evident Sasuke's anger was palpable. _Bless Juugo's heart,_ thought Suigetsu for not only breaking the silence, but convincing Sasuke that they should rest for the night, _that is one brave soul._

Their room really didn't have much, but Suigetsu didn't care, all he wanted, all he hoped for, was that Sasuke's bad mood was due to lack of sleep. When he settled himself to his self-assigned corner he was not at all surprised to see Sasuke still looking out the window, still expecting to discover something. It was when he felt sleep closing in on him that he heard an infant crying from the room above theirs, _fucking hell._ When minutes passed and the crying continued, he knew sleep would evade him. _This day gets better and better and by the second._

Giving up Suigetsu stood up, ready to complain to Sasuke about the infant, but Sasuke seemed frozen, but he was no longer looking out the window, he was looking up, towards the noise. He was about call Juugo, but Juugo was already approaching him, confusion evident on his face.

Sasuke didn't know what was wrong, but when the baby began to cry he felt like he needed to be there. He felt a pull towards the baby, a baby he had yet to see, as the minutes passed by and the crying continued it felt worse. It felt wrong to stay where he was, it was wrong, he needed to be _there_ with the baby. _I can make her stop._ Sasuke didn't know when he began to walk towards the door, he just felt the tug Suigetsu gave him to make him stop.

"You can't hurt a baby, no matter how annoying the crying is." Even as Suigetsu said it, he knew Sasuke wasn't annoyed by the nonstop crying, he was in a daze, almost like he had been in a genjutsu, but Sasuke should have seen through it. Sasuke for his part ignored Suigetsu's words but did go back to his original position by the window.

 _I should be with her,_ kept repeating in Sasuke's mind even as he forced himself to stay by the window. _I should be with her_ slowly transformed to _I need to be with her._ He was too concerned by his need to be there, that he never questioned why he had no doubt the baby was a girl. The longer the baby cried, the dirtier he felt, it was overwhelming all these sudden emotions, it felt like a failure from his part that he could hear the baby cry and not do anything about it.

The crying went on for a few hours when Suigetsu suddenly said, "I've had enough," and walked out. He returned about a half hour later, looking a little ashamed of himself, but the baby's crying never ceased.

Juugo waited for Suigetsu to explain himself, but when he didn't asked, "what did you do?"

He looked more ashamed then when he first entered the room, he hesitated to say, but when Suigetsu noticed that Sasuke's attention was on him finally answered, "I went to tell the lady to shut her baby up. That lady was really hot, you wouldn't think she had a baby so small though. Cute kid, once you get past the crying. Looks nothing like her mother, her mother had these really big-"

Juugo interrupted him before he could continue a look of disgust covering his features, "stop, say no more."

"I was going to compliment her eyes! Who's the pervert now?!"

"Well that doesn't explain why you didn't want to say anything."

"She was just really nice about the whole thing, she apologized like a dozen times, offered to have breakfast together as an apology."

"Did you accept?"

"Yeah, meeting her in her room tomorrow, free food is free food."

In Sasuke's mind Suigetsu's words rang in his head, _her mother._

* * *

 **A/N:** _I always had this idea that Suigetsu would demand silence, Juugo is annoyed by the crying but can deal with it, Sasuke is confused, and Suigetsu is having none of the crying. Small update but the next update will be longer, it will have Suigetsu and Sakura's breakfast, and another possible reunion. Also I wanted to share that any edits will be done when the story ends, I hope that way I will catch inconsistencies better since I would have the whole story to work with, so take this story as the draft (to an extent)... anyway I also want to thank every single one of you have reviewed, and followed and favorited this story, especially one person who has honestly been pretty helpful in writing this even if they don't know it yet. Updates should not take as long as they were taking anymore I however make no promises on the matter._


	9. Chapter 4 pt 3

Sakura had been surprised when she opened the door to find Suigetsu there, but Suigetsu was more than surprised to see Itachi standing behind her, he was in complete shock. He only managed to mutter an "oh shit," before Itachi placed him under a genjutsu, lead him inside the room and closed the door for Sakura.

Even through Sarada's crying ( _those lungs!)_ he could hear Sakura ask, "what the hell is he doing here?" She placed Sarada on the bed, and approached Itachi, hoping that Sarada being further away would make it easier to communicate.

"Why would you open the door so carelessly!?"

"I AM SORRY, LACK OF SLEEP MAKES PEOPLE DO STUPID THINGS!"

"If he is here my brother can't be far, it is best to control our voices."

There was sudden burst of clarity in Sakura's green eyes as she spoke, "I don't think anyone can hear us over Sarada's crying. By the way, she got those lungs from her father, I was a quiet baby."

"A moment ago, you appeared concerned with, I am sorry I don't know his name?"

"Suigetsu."

"Yes, you appeared concerned with Suigetsu being here, and now you are making jokes. Why?" He tried to hide the concern from his voice in the why, something told him he wouldn't like the answer.

"Because it means your brother is in this inn." Itachi concluded a few possibilities from this, and he didn't like any of them. "We can keep an eye on him through Suigetsu, at least while he is in the inn." Before a no could escape Itachi, Sakura continued, "this is a small town, as things are we can't even leave the inn, Suigetsu will be easy to get information from, we can have an idea of where your brother is or how long he will be here." Itachi was still unconvinced, "can you come up with a better plan?"

"No, and you clearly know him, I have to trust you. I don't want to, but I don't really have a choice." He held back his sigh and asked, "do you want me to add to his genjutsu or will you free him yourself?"

"Make sure the genjutsu leads him to the door, you will go to your room, I will free him."

He hesitated a little, but did as she told him, from his room he could hear Sarada crying, and was not surprised to discover that Sakura and Suigetsu's voices could not be made out. Peeking through his door he saw Sakura invite Suigetsu into her room, but she didn't close the door. He could see Suigetsu blushing, and nodding his head. The conversation went on for some time before Suigetsu left, the moment he left Itachi went to her room, and immediately asked, "what did you learn?"

"They are literally beneath our feet, I'll find out more tomorrow. I convinced Suigetsu to buy us breakfast tomorrow."

Itachi didn't bother to hide the shock in his voice, "you what!?"

"I got us a free breakfast."

"It's a little impulsive, what if my brother-"

"You can't leave the room with Sasuke wandering around looking for you. I can't leave because you won't let me, and it's not like Sarada is even an option. Suigetsu is getting us our food tomorrow, though I think he believes I am paying."

"And what do you expect me to do?"

"Stay in your room waiting for the leftovers. We need information, especially since they are close, how has Sasuke not found us?"

"What do you mean?"

"Karin, she is one of the best sensors I've ever met, and she is in his group. She should have found us, led him to us by now even. Yet, the one who showed up was Suigetsu, not Karin and Sasuke. We know Suigetsu and Sasuke are together, the only conclusion I can make is that she isn't with them."

"I cannot say that is disappointing, her absence is actually beneficial to us. Why does it concern you so much?"

"Because, Karin is in love with Sasuke, she wouldn't just leave him."

"My brother could have easily left her behind."

"He wouldn't, his goal is to find you. Karin is what he considers his best chance."

Deciding the conversation could go on forever, Itachi decided to change the subject, "how exactly do you plan on getting information from Suigetsu?" Sakura didn't want to tell Itachi that the brief amount of time Suigetsu spent in Konoha after the war he was practically drooling whenever he would see her, she didn't think her brother in law would appreciate that she was planning on flirting with a man that was not her husband. However, her hesitation was enough to inform Itachi of her plans. "You are going to flirt with him?!"

"It's not like I am going to cheat on your brother."

"That's not the problem, I trust your loyalty to my brother. I just don't think flirting with him will provide the intended results, the flirting may make him uncomfortable." He hadn't meant it as an insult, but she had been clearly and for rightful reasons offended by his statement. "You recently gave birth-"

"Just because I am a mother does not mean I am no longer attractive!"

"That's not what I meant. Sakura, you are very beautiful, I have no doubt my brother had competition for your affections, even in my time you have quite the reputation." He had placated her anger, _good._ The issue, is that you have excess milk. There is nothing that would entice me to flirt with a woman that is leaking."

"You make it seem like its constant!"

"Well it does occur with some frequency and-"

"It's really adorable that you think all men would have those standards. As a medical expert, and as someone who has worked in a hospital, let me tell you something," she paused, waiting to have full command of his attention, "people are perverts."

"I am not some innocent child that does not know there are perverts out there, I just do not believe my brother would associate himself with one."

She almost laughed at the innocence of his statement, choosing to ignore him, she went towards Sarada, "it would be best for you to remain in your room until I go to you tomorrow."

"Fine, but you will send Suigetsu for the food, and you will have it here. Understand?"

"Yes, now go to your room and stay there until further notice, you need sleep as badly as I do. Goodnight." Sakura could tell that Itachi wanted to say more, he clearly wanted to place rules and a time limit. She pushed him towards the door and closed the door behind him, approaching Sarada, she couldn't help the smile in her face when she told her, "you are loved."

Hours passed, and Sakura had not even slept for five minutes when there was a knock on her door, while she was positive it was Suigetsu behind the door. However, she had since learned her lesson of opening the door so carelessly. Approaching it carefully, afraid of waking up Sarada who had fallen asleep minutes before her, she asked, "who is it?"

"I'm here for our breakfast date. Let's go!"

Sakura had to hold in her groan, she was more than disappointed to discover that Suigetsu was an early riser. She opened the door, holding a finger to her mouth in a shushing motion, "If you wake her up, you are dead."

"So how are we doing this?"

"Well I was thinking that you could get us the breakfast, and bring it here."

"Yeah, your kid is asleep, and I am not waking up that little demon." Noticing the glare she sent in his direction he quickly added, "cute demon though. We could make it a dinner date." Sakura ignored the flashy grin he sent her way.

Deciding that knowing what Sasuke was up to was more important than Itachi's self-punishment, she did the only thing she could think off, "I'll meet you downstairs in a bit, I have a friend in the area than can watch her for a few minutes. I bet she kept you up all night, breakfast is the least I could do. After all you were very patient." Suigetsu seemed content to be on his merry way.

Sakura wasn't surprised to find that Itachi opened his door the moment Suigetsu left. She didn't give him a chance to protest though. "We need to know what your brother is up to. If I go out, I can also look for my husband, it will be thirty minutes max. Sarada just fell asleep, she shouldn't wake up for at least two hours." With that she went to her room and grabbed her cloak, there were two things she was certain of, the first was the Itachi would argue if she gave him the chance, and that her pink hair was a giveaway because it always was.

When she approached Suigetsu he was quick to point out her cloak in the middle of April, she lied and said she felt a cold coming on, and couldn't risk it. She let Suigetsu lead, something she quickly regretted when he took her to a ramen stand. Sasuke once told her that Suigetsu and Naruto had a few similarities, but this was just ridiculous. As soon as they ordered, he asked, "so what brings you to the middle of nowhere?"

"My husband and I were heading home. We ran into some trouble, and he thought it _prudent_ to send us away."

"You don't sound very happy about that."

"Well that's because he sent us away in a panic. Enough about me, what brings you here?"

"The boss leads, we follow."

"You have traveling companions? I am sorry, my daughter must have kept all of you up."

"Nah, it's not your fault. We shouldn't even be in this town. The boss is obsessive." When their food arrived they ate in silence, but Sakura could tell something was bothering him. "You know, on the way over here we ran into this guy passed out on the ground. No signs of a struggle, Sasuke, the boss, didn't care though, when it comes to his obsession there are no distractions."

Sakura had to keep herself from asking more details about the man they found, feigning disinterest was hard though, and she could feel Suigetsu's eyes on her, "really now?"

"Yeah, but like a I said, my boss has a one, track mind, he followed a crow here. Eventually he asked me to look for a place to stay. Which I did, but last night after I met you, I remembered something," Sakura could feel her heart beating faster," the guy who gave me the room, said that a guy came in and rented all rooms in the top floor. Only you were there though." Sakura knew the implication behind his words, "Sasuke asked me about you, in detail, he asked me to distract you. Wanted to see it with his own eyes that you weren't _her._ " Suigetsu sighed, "it's nothing personal pinky." With that she heard the explosion from the direction of the inn.

* * *

 **A/N:** _sorry for any mistakes, which there will likely be a lot of them, I am updating this within minutes of finishing it. Timely has always had multiple possible endings, I set it up in a way that I could end it in different manners, it was just I needed a character to pull the trigger on their route, I always knew Suigetsu would be able to solve where Itachi was if he really thought about it, its just that up until I was writing it, I didn't know he had indeed thought about it... originally Karin was gonna be character the pulled trigger on her route..._

 _I have a few things to address on this author note first of and I hope this doesn't sound angry, cause its not supposed to be... someone commented that they didn't think Sasuke would reveal the truth of the massacre to anyone, or not really Karin... something along those lines. Obviously I disagree or I wouldn't have written that in there. When I initially considered Sasuke telling Karin there was huge logic behind it that I ended up forgetting as I actually wrote that. The logic is Karin was going to find out anyway, she was there when Sasuke fought Danzo... Sasuke doesn't care as much if she finds out because she was going to anyway. And the same reviewer also pointed things out that were written that way on purpose, like I said I've had multiple directions, it was just I needed a character that would pull the trigger._

 _and I also wanted to apologize for taking so long to update. and like I said, this story was never on hiatus, I worked on it when I could, sometimes I would only be able to write a sentence at a time, and then the next time I worked on it I would delete a whole paragraph... very little progress... and maybe some of you noticed beginnings was being updated, and I am not going to ask you guys to read it, but sometimes there is information on the updates for timely in there..._

 _sorry for such a small update too, and as always thank you guys for reading, when I first started this story I told myself that even having one person interested in the story would be enough... so this story having as many follows and favorites as it does is just amazing to me._


	10. Chapter 4 pt 4

Karin was tired of adult Sasuke. How dare he come to the past, tell her _that_ and expect her to act like she didn't know? He was trying to have her block out the sun with a thumb! Plus, it didn't help that adult Sasuke expected her to find his wife, and brother for him with his younger self probably ready to go on a rampage at the thought of Itachi, oh and somehow up until now he forgot to mention his wife had their daughter with her. His not even one-month old daughter. Forget about younger Sasuke going on a rampage, she was so ready to go on one. "You didn't think you should have mentioned this earlier?!"

"Hindsight is twenty twenty." His voice was calm, but his eyes were not, "I need you to focus."

"ON WHICH PART EXACTLY!?" Karin had never been so dumbfounded, so frustrated in her life, she thought discovering a time traveling Sasuke would be the pique of confusion in her life. How wrong she had been.

"On the questions I asked you, how fast does my chakra drain, and how close can I get?" When Karin still seemed unable to fully understand his question. "I understand that the situation is strange, but stranger things have yet to happen in your life."

"Really, time travel isn't the weirdest thing to happen to me?"

"Technically you didn't time travel." The glare sent in his direction had a nice sense of fuck you, written all over it.

"Well _sorry_ for the technicality asshole!" Karin took a deep breath, looked at him, took another, and finally spoke," it drains faster the closer you get, hard to say how fast since it varies."

"You need to get to them. Find out where the crow led them."

"I can't just leave you while your chakra is so low."

"Fine leave a baby without her father."

"You cannot guilt trip me into this when this whole thing happened because of you. Besides, the little girl is safer near her uncle and mother than her father whose chakra is fluctuating more than a pregnant woman's!" She could feel his chakra go up and down, it was insane how little his body could handle being near himself. "Like I told you earlier, I am not leaving you like this," he was about to argue with her on the subject," do tell me then, how can they go back without you?" Silence was her answer, "I don't feel comfortable leaving you, we'll stay here for now, see how you recover, we need to stabilize your chakra."

They landed in a comfortable silence, both deep in thought, when suddenly Sasuke broke out into a smile, one more beautiful than the one she had fallen for. He then said, "I never thought my brother would get the chance to meet her." Karin said nothing knowing he was just voicing the awe of his situation, for Sasuke she had no doubt had two separate families, the one from his childhood and the one he was building now. She had never felt so bad for him, as she did at his realization that for now, his daughter had an uncle.

* * *

 **A/N:** _very small update but the last of chapter four, I needed to let you guys know why Sasuke and Karin had yet to show up mainly cause they are still in the same day that they ran into the older Sasuke, so this update actually takes place before the breakfast with Suigetsu... but I feel like it makes more sense here... if there is confusion I could move this when I combine the chapter... Initially Karin was going to show up and run into Suigetsu... and there was no explosion... but damn did Suigetsu have to ruin everything even for me... characters really do have a mind of their own._

 _Also I don't know when the next update will be, I was just in such a great mood after going to see my favorite band live (Nightwish) that I started typing away... so good moods make write :)_

 _a million thanks to you guys your reviews always put a smile on my face_


	11. Chapter 5 pt 1

She told herself the reality didn't sting, she was well aware that Sasuke had never looked at her twice on the matter, but it was strange to discover that she still had a bit of watched from a distance, as a girl exited the inn with Suigetsu, her cloak hid her well, but based on her height he deduced it wasn't Sakura. This left him relieved, but the question remained, who was she to his brother? All signs pointed to his brother being present, the man they found in the forest had no external injuries likely due to genjutsu, the crow led him to this village and suddenly vanished. Suigetsu had not seemed too happy with his plan, but everything was pointing to his brother being in the same inn as him.

"Change of plans Juugo, I want the kid, you'll be the distraction." Kidnapping wasn't his plan when he thought of drawing out his brother, however the possibility of his brother starting his own family after all the death he had caused, he needed to know. If the girl was in fact his niece, _what then? kill her? Keep her? What?_ He tried to get the thoughts out of his head, with the knowledge that his brother cared little if at all about family, if anything he was about to kidnap an innocent girl. It didn't change the fact that for some reason, he wanted to see the little girl.

Even before Suigetsu explained to him that the inn keeper had only mentioned a man being in the top level and had only discovered the woman with her child, he had wanted to see the crying infant. Wanted to hold her, it was a ridiculous urge, one that he knew was guiding his decision, but he couldn't get himself to care. If the infant was unrelated to Itachi she would be safe no harm would come to her.

There was some hesitation before Juugo agreed, neither of them were morally content with kidnapping an infant, but the girl's mother wouldn't be gone long. It was a gamble, that went against his principles, but there was something wrong, a pull he could not escape from. Sasuke knew he was overlooking something about the whole situation, but it whatever it was, it came to mind only as a shadow.

* * *

Sakura had left him no room for argument, she immediately went to pick up Sarada and place her on his bed, only telling him,"don't worry she just ate, and she just fell asleep. Plus, she already pooped." Five minutes into her absence, and Sarada was making a strange face, her tongue was sticking out, clearly, she was putting effort into something, he found amusement in the face until he realized this must be the dreaded poopy face Sakura had mentioned in one of their talks.

The poop was not a problem, he had been unlucky enough to change some diapers in his youth, the issue was Sakura had been so confident that Sarada would just only sleep she had only delivered Sarada to his room. That was easy to care for, he sent a clone to collect the necessary items. It was as his clone was about to hand him over the items that he heard a crash from Sakura's room.

" _You can't guilt trip me"_ she could smack her head against a tree if it wouldn't require her to stop. She should have known that older Sasuke was still Sasuke-kun, the boy she is in love with, she had been too smug its why the words had so quickly turned on her. Really, she should learn to be quiet. _No,_ she knew the reason she left, Sasuke's chakra was no longer fluctuating, it was settled, it was recovering, besides like he said, "we have to guarantee that my wife is there, or that she is with Itachi." Which she knew to mean "go and check." So here she was now, no sleep in what felt like a decade of a day, trying to reunite the one she loves to the ones he loves.

* * *

Suigetsu had made one thing clear to Sasuke before meeting the girl, _he would not hold her back._ Suigetsu refused to keep a mother from their child, especially because he saw the baby, fresh off the womb he recalled thinking. Now as he looked to the girl, the rage the frustration, he wondered if even distracting her had been too much. Her realization was worse, she looked to him ready to fight, but he waved her away, "I'm not going to stop you." She left immediately after that. This, he knew was his lowest moment, one that would not be easily beaten.

He saw he run, no doubt a mother's love guiding her still however she had hair covered in the cloak, but suddenly he saw red. Karin's red hair, "Where were you?"

"Since when do you care? Look I don't have time to explain, that woman that just went running, does she have pink hair?"

"Yes."

"Why is she running towards the explosion?"

"Take a guess."

"Shit!"

* * *

 **A/N:** _Sorry about how long it took, remember my author's note of being in a good mood? I got sick days later, and while sick I lost all urge to write (and all my food too). Then I got blocked, because I didn't know who to focus on, then about a week ago I realized what I needed to focus on, getting all the characters in the same time, I needed Karin but she was falling behind, I need Itachi but again he was falling behind and it wasn't right to just have confrontation, I needed to give him a little bit of Sarada time. I need the characters to catch up for what they need to do, and that's what the first part of this chapter is. So next update should be more thrilling, and guess who is the star of the next update? Hopefully all the jumping around between charaters will end soon._

 _also Sarada's poopy face is based on my niece's one (though her brother did the same face), and the whole baby wakes up when it shouldn't, based on my own experience when my nephew was and infant, "he just ate." the moment his parents leave he begins to cry for food. "He just fell asleep," wakes up as they finish talking. "He just pooped." Begins to poop. He was winter baby so they tried to avoid taking him out, and i was 15 at the time. So this happened a lot._

 _In case you guys hadn't noticed I am very open in the notes, probably cause so many of them disappear when I combine the chapters, which I will be doing before the next update, so do look back through all my apologies of how long it took me to update fondly. I know I suck with updating, but imagine if I did update it chapter by chapter instead of by parts? You guys would hate me with a passion._

 _And again thank you guys for reading, I am not the most amazing writer, if anything I am average or right below it so I really do appreciate you guys reading this._

 _ **Update:** Fixed a mistake just now, and lesson learned I will never call myself average again_


	12. Some information for you guys

This will be a combination of a rant and an explanation.

I will start with the rant.

I understand that many of you may have thought, or considered the possibility that this story is dead. I dont blame you for thinking that. However, that is not accurate. I've always kind of hated fanfic writers that say they don't owe the readers anything, because every writer owes their readers the choice of knowing the ending. If you don't want to owe your readers anything, than dont make your story public, keep it to yourself. Every reader deserves a chance to know how a story they are spending their time on ends.

With that in mind, know I intend to finish every story I start. Yet, we are all aware of the difference between intent, and actually doing. I want to say this now, if for some reason I decide to stop working on Timely, there would be one final update letting you know not only the reasons why (because you would be owed that), but also my intentions with the story. How I planned to end the story, ideas I had planned, but you guys would know the ending, I wouldn't leave you in the dark about it.

The reasons I have been unable to update Timely since 5/11/18, is because things got really hectic for me. First I got a new job about a week after that update, my dog was also sick around that same time and it required me to wake up at 2 am, then 4 am, to give her medicine. I also studied for a test in the summer that could give me college credits (I got 12 out of it!). I started school in August, and at the same time I got really sick (I'm not going into details on that just know that it was affecting me not just physically but mentally).

In between that I do remember pulling out my laptop to work on Timely, but I also remember not being able to come up with anything for the story. I would stare at my laptop screen wanting to work on the story but being stuck. Now, in hindsight, part of that may have been exhaustion, however once I did have a chance to breathe properly I felt kind of angry at the story for not letting me write (stupid logic I know).

I remember feeling really shitty about my writing and needing an ego boost, so I went and looked at the reviews for Beginnings and picked a story from those reviews to work on. I choose to properly work on Unexpected for a few reasons, the first being it's intended to be a short story, and from the moment I came up with the idea I knew how the story would go, how the characters were going to react. I just knew everything about it. Plus I also felt like people were more excited about that one than the other stories. The goal of working on Unexpected was to get me through my writers block, and it has, just not the way I thought it would.

While working on Unexpected I realized a few flaws in the way I had approached Timely. Due to it being the first ever thing I posted on here I uploaded it impulsively and nervously. I had no real intention with the story. Every action the characters have taken, every decision has been made impulsively on the spot, and I eventually wrote myself into a corner. When I posted the story it was more about getting over my nerves, not about sharing a story. That is only one issue though, I will be coming back soon to work on Timely, but things will be different.

I had initially separated the chapters for the sake of faster updates, and you guys saw how well that has worked out. This was done to not overwhelm me not just for you guys getting faster updates. Unfortunately this has made the chapter itself once all together feel disconnected (at least to me). It has also made me a lazy writer when it comes to updates, I give you guys so little and tell myself it's fine because once it's all together it adds up. That will no longer be the case. Not only do I intend on doing full chapter updates from now on, but I also intend to go back and rewrite the chapters I have up now and make them more cohesive. I plan on keeping the plot the same, however if I do change too much I will update you guys, probably with one more update like this one.

I never liked the title, maybe some of you do. That's fine. However I will admit I came up with it on the spot when I first uploaded the story, because I needed a title. I wanted a title that gave away what the story is about, Unexpected is about something unexpected. Beginnings is about story ideas I am working on, each chapter having the title they would have if they were to be multi chapter fics. Those titles, have meaning to them, and while Timely is a reference to not just the time travel, but the timing of events (that's the reasoning behind the title), I've never been fond of it. What this means is, that I am thinking of changing the title, but I really dont have one planned yet. I guess this is more of a warning of what could potentially happen. If you guys have any ideas, I would be happy to listen to them.

I also dont like the summary so that is going to change, it's not interesting and it is worded all weird. I still dont know why I changed it to that.

While this may make it seem like Timely will be worked on soon, that is not the case. I intend to finish Unexpected first, and it's not fair to you guys but Unexpected is halfway done already, and is all planned out. I also want to give my full attention to Timely and I cant do that if Unexpected is going to be on the back of my mind. Unfortunately, I'm not even going to be jumping into Unexpected anytime soon either. My sister is borrowing my laptop and when she plans on giving it back, I'm going to be out of the country right after. The only stories I will be working will be anything in Beginnings since I write those on my phone, in fact this was typed on my phone.

For those who read this whole update, thank you. For those who didn't, thank you still. I'm grateful for every one of you. For giving this story a chance, and for sticking with it even with how bad I am at updates.


End file.
